


Ships In The Night

by imkerfuffled



Category: Captain America (Movies), Invaders (Marvel), Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Captain America: The First Avenger, Gen, Marvel 616/MCU Crossover, rated for Bucky's language, you could interpret this as pretty much anything relationship-wise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-12
Updated: 2015-10-12
Packaged: 2018-04-26 01:42:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4985131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imkerfuffled/pseuds/imkerfuffled
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>He might have passed this by without a second glance on his way in—and honestly, who could blame him when there was a flying car up ahead—but this is actually pretty awesome. Because, if he’s reading this right, then that guy up there in the glass case is actually a freaking robot, and if that isn’t the neatest thing anyone’s seen all day, then he doesn’t know what is. </i>
</p><p> </p><p>In front of the exhibit for "Professor Horton's Synthetic Man" at the World Fair, Bucky has a chance meeting with a circus kid who says his name is Toro.</p><p>Or, as i like to call it: Invaders! MCU style!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ships In The Night

**Author's Note:**

> Well, sort of invaders mcu style. My imagination is telling me to write a long epic in which I essentially steal the Invaders and stuff them into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but my brain says that's impractical and I'd never get it done, so there's that to consider as well. Who knows, I may end up writing a little more for this.
> 
> This was born out of the convergence of two main things: 1) being my uncanny ability to invest myself in tiny fandoms with nearly nonexistent ao3 tags, and my subsequent frustration when I reach the end of said ao3 tags.
> 
> and 2) The nagging insistence in the back of mind mind that I'd already seen something about this Jim Hammond guy while perusing Easter eggs in the First Avenger. He's in there. It's about a two second shot at the beginning of the World Fair scene, but he's in there.
> 
> Comments are lovely and greatly appreciated, any really nice ones might just help me write new chapters :)

“‘Phineas Horton presents the Synthetic Man,’” Bucky whispers, reading off the big, glowing letters of the sign, “Ho-lee shit.”

He mighta passed this by without a second glance on his way in—and honestly, who could blame him when there was a flying car up ahead—but this is actually pretty fucking awesome. 'Cause, if he’s reading this right, then that guy up there in the glass case is actually a fucking robot, and if that isn’t the neatest thing anyone’s seen all day, then he doesn’t know what is.

Actually, that flying car is still pretty cool, even if it only worked for a few seconds.

“He sure is something, ain’t he?” An unfamiliar voice to his right snaps him outta his thoughts, and Bucky turns to see a dark haired fella about his age, or maybe a few years younger. He’s got that chubby, boyish sorta face that can make a guy look younger than he actually is. Anyway, he’s staring up at the Synthetic Man with this stupid looking, awestruck grin, which… Come to think of it, Bucky probably looks the same to him.

“Is that what I think it is?” Bucky asks him. Cool. Calm. Not like he’s about to piss himself because it feels like he’s living in a goddamn sci-fi pulp by just being here.

“Yup,” the guy says. He’s cool. Calm. Still awestruck, and a little bit bemused, but probably not about to piss himself. “One hundred percent artificial, man-made man.”

“Fucking science.” Stay cool, Buck.

The guy laughs, but it ain’t a mean sort of laugh, so Bucky figures he managed not to make a fool of himself. “You don’t know the half of it. They gotta keep him in that case, otherewise the air’ll make him burst into flames.”

“No way!” Shit. “How’s that work?”

“Not a clue,” the guy admits, “I’m pretty sure not even this Horton guy knows.”

Aw, just screw it, Bucky thinks, shaking his head in amazement as he says again, “Fucking science.”

 “‘Fucking science,’” the guy echoes.

For a moment, they just stand there while the announcer plays his “welcome to the Modern Marvel Pavilion” speech again. Fucking ‘Modern Marvel’ is right. Fucking Synthetic Man. Hell, when Bucky thinks of a robotic person, he thinks, you know, clunky metal parts, with nuts, and bolts, and welding seams, and dead, mechanical eyes. But no, this thing looks completely human. Human hair. Human skin. Human face. And it’s all fake.

Fucking science.

Bucky suddenly remembers that that guy is still there, and the silence is getting kinda awkward by now, so he turns to him and says, “Hey, my name’s Bucky. What’s yours?”

“Thomas,” the guy says, “But my buddies all call me Toro.” Weird name. He sticks his arm out for a handshake, and—oh yeah, Bucky completely forgot about the drinks in his hands. Which he was supposed to bring to Clara and Mandy about five minutes ago. Crap. He has to awkwardly maneuver one of the drinks into the crook of his left elbow in order to return the handshake, and he thinks he can safely say he’s lost all of his usual suaveness by now.

“You shipping out soon?” Toro asks, with a quick nod at Bucky’s uniform.

Oh yeah. That’s another thing he’d managed to forget. Fuck. “Yeah,” he says, quickly plastering on that famed Bucky Barnes smile, “First thing tomorrow, I’m off to jolly old England.”

“You don’t seem too happy about that.” Fuck.

“No, I am.” Fuck fuck fuck. “Anything to help, you know. It’s just…” Fucking Steve. “Part of me thinks I’m needed more here than I am over there.” 'Cause Steve could get sick and die while Bucky’s over there, and he doesn’t give a single flying fuck if Toro doesn’t think that’s a good enough reason.

Toro doesn’t press the subject, thank God. He just nods a bit and frowns, but not in a way that means he really agrees or disagrees with Bucky. It’s more the sort of nod someone uses when they haven’t got a clue what to say, and they’re stalling for time. They lapse into another awkward silence.

“I’ve been wanting to come here for ages,” Bucky blurts out, because him and his big mouth just don’t know how to handle thirty fucking seconds without anyone talking, “And when I realized today’d be my last chance for it, I just went ‘fuck it, I’m going.’” And then he brought Steve within range of an army recruitment center and they both ditched their dates. Good goin’ Buck.

Toro flashes him a wicked grin, the kind that usually ends with a fist to the face whenever it’s on Bucky’s, and Bucky decides right then that he likes this guy. “Well, I’m here with the circus act, so I get to stay all week."

“Lucky shit,” Bucky says, “Whaddaya do in the circus?”

“Fire-eater. I’ve got a gig as ‘Toro the flaming kid,’” Toro replies. Huh. With a name like Toro, Bucky’d expected something to do with bulls. On the other hand…

“I can see why you like this guy, then,” he says, pointing a thumb at the Synthetic Man.

Toro laughs and nods along, but—and Bucky’s usually a pretty good judge of this sort of thing—there’s something in his eyes that makes Bucky think he’s holding back. Not that Bucky would pry into the man’s personal business, or anything. After all, Toro did the same for him just a minute ago.

“Actually,” Toro says after a pause, making it a moot point, “Before they died, my parents were the lead scientists working with Professor Horton on him.”

“Wow.” ‘Wow’? Really? That’s what he says: ‘wow’? Wow.

Well, how is a guy _supposed_ to respond to a sentence that starts with, ‘before they died’?

If Toro thinks anything of it, he doesn’t let on. “There’s gonna be a special showing later, where Horton opens up the case and explains how he made it. First time he’s done it for the public, I think. Well, sort of public. Mostly it’s just for a buncha hot-shot science people, but I got a free invitation 'cause of my parent’s connection to it.”

“Sounds pretty neat,” Bucky says. Fuck ‘pretty neat,’ that sounds fucking awesome.

“Yeah that’s what I’m hoping. This is actually the first time I’ve seen him up close.” Suddenly, Toro gives Bucky that look again, the one that ends in fistfights and great stories to tell the gang. “Hey,” he says, “You wanna come?”

 _Holy fuck does he want to!_ Nope. Stay cool. Stay calm. “I thought you said you had to be invited?”

“I can sneak you in.”

 _Holy fuck, really?_ Fuck cool and calm. Fuck it. Although, just as Bucky’s about to say hell yeah and jump right in, a tiny little voice that sounds suspiciously like his mother’s comes floating into his ear, talking about strangers and what not to do with them. “You’d do that? I mean, we barely know each other.”

“Yeah, sure!” Toro waves it off like it’s no trouble at all, “You can bring your date too, if you want.”

Date? What date—ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Clara. Bucky glances down at the drinks in his hands. Shit, it’s definitely been too long to pretend he got lost trying to find a concession stand. He’ll fix that. Later.

Plus there’s, well, the other thing.

“What time does this thing start?” he asks. If he had fingers available to cross, Bucky would do it.

“About eleven thirty. Why?”

“Um…” Fuck. He’s got to leave house at four in the morning, and he’d like at least a little sleep before then.

Science? Or sex? Science? Sex? Science… Oh, what the fuck is he thinking! Why is that a question?

“It’s just, I was, uh, kinda hoping… well…” Shit, this is embarrassing.

“Oh.”

Shit. “You know, 'cause I gotta leave tomorrow, and…” Number one on the Top Ten Most Embarrassing Conversations Had With a Near Stranger list, right here. And that includes the one time Mrs. Henson kept asking why her daughter was spending so much time at Sarah Jane’s house, and Steve decided he’d suddenly gone mute.

“No, that makes sense.”

“I mean, it sounds great, but…” What the fuck, stop talking! James Bucky Barnes, you fucking moron!

“Is she hot?”

“Hell yeah.” Fuck this entire day.

“Sweet.”

“Yeah.” Fuck! Stop! Talking!

“Well, uh, good luck.”

“You too.”

Fuck.

**Author's Note:**

> A few hours later, after Steve shows up again only to be chewed out for actually being accepted into the army, and Steve's date decides there was really no point in agreeing to come here in the first place, Bucky does end up going home with Clara, and they narrowly miss the slew of firetrucks that arrive shortly after they leave. According to eyewitnesses, a young man purportedly caught on fire during Professor Horton's exhibition and nearly burnt down the entire Modern Marvels Pavilion. The man in question appears to be rattled, though physically unharmed, and as of yet, none of the world's top scientists--many of whom were there in that very pavilion--can give a definitive explanation for the nights events. One small boy and his adopted sister, however (who came all the way from Westchester to see the World Fair, and who may or may not have sneaked into the showing themselves) believe they may know the answer, and the answer starts with 'M.' (They are also wrong, according to the All-New Invaders comic series.)


End file.
